Affordable Housing Compliance

FPI Management processes 50,000 lease applications a year on AODocs

FPI Management runs 103,000 housing units with 3,000 employees. A large share of its work is affordable housing: tax credit, HUD, and Section 8 lease applications that federal auditors review file by file. On Google Workspace already, FPI chose AODocs over SharePoint to make that paperwork secure, documented, and streamlined.

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Challenges

Federal audits, zero tolerance

Affordable housing applicants prove eligibility with W2s and income documents, and federal auditors review every lease file. For FPI's clients to stay compliant, the paperwork FPI manages must be completely accurate.

A Google shop needing more than Drive

Already on Google Workspace, FPI wanted to replace its aging system with something that worked with Google, not against it. SharePoint was considered, and rejected: the configuration alone would have consumed too much time and resources.

Solutions

A straightforward fit, no programmers required

AODocs slotted into FPI's Google Workspace environment without full-time developers, with Google Drive's storage behind it.

Lease files under tracked workflows

Every record moves through workflows the teams monitor themselves — time and place of each processing step visible to auditors, on-site staff, and compliance alike.

Libraries that clone as programs grow

FPI built its first lease application library, then copied the setup to stand up libraries for each tax credit program. Configuration reused, not rebuilt.

Wins and results

50,000 applications a year, and counting

From 4,000 lease applications processed in the very first month to 50,000 each year: the platform absorbed FPI's volume from day one.

Transparency that empties the ticket queue

Auditors, on-site, and compliance teams see each record's history themselves and support ticket requests dropped accordingly.

The next processes are already queuing

With lease applications running, FPI is turning to AODocs to bring the same structure and automation to other departments.

Challenge

A leading property management firm with over 3,000 employees, FPI services clients that range from institutional investors to international real estate investment firms, financial institutions, multi-family developers, private investors, and more.

A big part of their service involves managing lease applications for affordable housing units, like tax credit, HUD, and Section 8 housing, for property owners. To apply for housing and receive certain tax credits, potential tenants must prove that they are low-income individuals by providing W2s and other income-related documents.

Part of this federally mandated program requires auditors to do a file review of each lease application to make sure that applicants are, in fact, qualified for the tax credits. In order for FPI’s clients to be compliant and follow these regulations, it’s crucial that the paperwork and information that FPI manages during the lease application process is 100% accurate.

The process needs to be secure, well-documented, and streamlined – which is why AODocs is a good fit for us, explained Kristin Hernandez, Senior IT Director at FPI.

Story

Since FPI was already using Google Workspace, they were looking to replace their previous system with something that would work well with Google but also provide security improvements and streamline their processes. They considered Microsoft SharePoint but realized that the level of configuration would require too much time and resources.

What I loved instantly about AODocs was that it was very straightforward. It didn’t require full-time programmers and it fit right into our Google Workspace environment. I also knew that the unlimited space would come in handy since we were using Google Drive for storage. It was just a good, happy pairing.

Results

FPI employees now have an easy-to-use system that makes every part of their process run more efficiently.

AODocs has given our auditors, on-site, and compliance teams a greater degree of transparency, explained Kristin.

The workflow process allows the teams to monitor the time and location of each record processed in the system themselves, thereby decreasing support ticket requests. In just the first month, 4,000 lease applications were already processed in FPI’s AODocs library. Now, they’re creating and managing 50,000 lease applications each year on the platform. FPI also needed to establish additional libraries to service the various tax credit programs.

We were able to establish our first library, copy the setup, and make changes to quickly establish the additional libraries.” explained Kristin. “The support from the AODocs team, from sales to training and technical support, has been phenomenal.

Now that FPI has their lease application process up and running, they’re looking to AODocs to help bring better structure and automation to further improve other processes within their departments.

About FPI Management

FPI Management's corporate culture is grounded in HEART: humility, excellence, accountability, respect, and teamwork. These values have been its hallmark since 1968. FPI manages over 103,000 units across the US and has ranked among the country's largest affordable and multi-family property managers (NAHMA Affordable 100, NMHC).